Area of inquiry 05
Buddhism & Religion
Buddhism, Daoism and lived religion as practised in kitchens, on roads and at shrines — not doctrine alone.
- Lived religion
- Doctrine and practice
- Ritual economy
- Contemplation
Writing
Essay · EN
Between Mysticism and Revolution: The Poetry of Khomeini
Essay · EN
Rivers and Lakes
Essay · EN
The Windcatchers of Hyderabad
Essay · EN
The Gap in the Smile: Ritual Tooth Extraction in Ancient China
Essay · EN
The Fasting of the Heart
Essay · EN
The Eight White Yurts
Essay · EN
Iranian Jews and the Baha'i Option
Essay · EN
Cheese Between East and West
Essay · EN
Asia’s Mink Blankets
Essay · EN
The Ashura She-Camel
Essay · EN
The Foundation of the Chinese Home
Essay · EN
The Eight Flavors of Beijing
Travel Journal · EN
The Walled Garden of the Chinese Market
Essay · EN
Sand and Tears: The Central Asian Slave Route
Essay · EN
The Coal Camels of Old Beijing
Essay · EN
The Yellow Dragon
Essay · EN
The Arrival of Botany in China
Essay · EN
The Eid al-Adha Market in Kashgar
Essay · EN
A Cabbage at the Doorstep
Essay · EN
How Food Crosses Borders
Essay · EN
The Chromium Myth of the Terracotta Army
Essay · EN
The Lychee, the Messengers, and the Scholar
Essay · EN
Yizhan: Notes from the Imperial Road
Field Note · EN
The Road to Heaven
Essay · EN
The Book of Swindles
Essay · EN
Ti-Yong and the Iranian Crisis
Essay · EN
The Lidai Fabao: Memory, Lineage, and the Living Dharma
Essay · EN
Chinese Thought in a Fractured World
Essay · EN
Harmony, at Times, Comes Down to a Plate
Essay · EN
The Bone Shaker
Essay · EN
Not Gazing Enough at the Mountain
Essay · EN
Beyond the Five Pungent Roots
Travel Journal · EN
Immortals and Bunkers
Travel Journal · EN
The Afghan Walk
Essay · EN
The Lost Legion of Liqian
Essay · EN
The Last Farmers of Dali
Essay · EN
The Seven Necessities
Essay · EN
Kingdom of the Wheat Line
Essay · EN
The Soul of the Chinese Street
Essay · EN
Coffee and Tea at Heaven’s Gate
Essay · EN
Flowers in the Yunnanese Kitchen
Essay · EN
The Yogurt Revolution
Essay · EN
A Memory Map of the Beijing Metro
Essay · EN
Locusts on the Sabbath Table
Essay · EN
The Double Skies of Chinese Islam
Essay · EN
My Dad, the Dragon
Essay · EN
Between Shawarma and Doner
Essay · EN
Today’s Bandits, Tomorrow’s Rebels
Essay · EN
Of Tobacco, Bottles, and Birds
Essay · EN
Feathers and Ice: The Gyrfalcon Road
Essay · EN
Listen to the Reed!
Essay · EN
Light and Blood
Essay · EN
Sea Breeze: The Odyssey of the Kashkul
Essay · EN
Faces of Eternity
Research · EN
Scent and Splendor: The Way of the Citron
Research · EN
The Way of the Three Treasures: A History of the Eunuch
Essay · EN
From Egypt to Susa: The Flight of the Falcon of Shiraz
Research · EN
Turks and Poets: From Skulls to Goblets
Essay · EN
Khoja Nasreddin: The Art of the Border Crossing
Essay · EN
Invaders, Braids, and Borders
Essay · EN
The Day of the Kyrgyz Kalpak
Essay · EN
The Skeptic of Khorasan
Essay · EN
The Tulip Cult of the Turks
Research · EN
The Cloud Binders
Essay · EN
The Hashish Eaters: Cannabis on the Silk Road
Essay · EN
Between Tavern and Mosque: The Path of Coffee
Essay · EN
The Long Shadows of the Poppy
Essay · EN
Doomsday Raki
Essay · EN
The Tamed Wild: Control and Artifice in the Classical Chinese Garden
Essay · EN
Empires and Teacups
Essay · EN
Silk, Strings, and Sacred Wood
Essay · EN
The Fate of the Copper Monastery
Essay · EN
Nomads: The Jews of the Silk Road
Essay · EN
Vipassanā Vespers
Essay · EN
Architecture: Fortresses of the Soul
Essay · EN
Whispers of Paradise: A Journey into Sufi Music
Essay · EN
The Way of Khoja Nasreddin
Essay · EN
The Purple Apples of the Tian Shan
Essay · EN
To the Valley of Unity: The Sufi Path
Essay · EN
Thus Spoke the Old Camel Owner
Essay · EN
The Pichok: Central Asia’s Living Blade
Essay · EN
To the Sufis of China
Essay · EN
The King of Cuisines: Central Asian Plov
Essay · EN
The Last Refuge of the Silk Road Kings
Essay · EN
Camels, Turks, and Climate Change
Essay · EN
Song of the Mad Lark
Essay · EN
Bones of Fortune
Research · EN
God’s Bonsai
Research · EN
The Light-Bearing Melons of Samarkand
Research · EN
The Exiles of Samarkand
Research · EN
Exiles, Part II
Essay · EN
Of Rebels and Black Pots
Research · EN
The Caspian Tiger: A Ghost of Central Asia
Research · EN
Exiles #3: The Black Khitans
Research · EN
Qurut: The Salty Soul of Central Asia
Research · EN
Rebels of the Black Tent
Research · EN
Forbidden Apricots in Xinjiang
Research · EN
The Archers of Islam
Research · EN
Fragments of Iranian Buddhism
Research · EN
Nowruz: The Dawn of a New Day
Research · EN
Taming the Snow Leopard: A Central Asian Mystery
Research · EN
The Tarim Mummies
Research · EN
Central Asia in Photos: The Lens of Max Penson
Research · EN
The Mosaics of Soviet Central Asia
Essay · EN
A Mouthless Crow and Crazy Clouds
Essay · EN
China in Central Asia: Nomads, Greeks, and Blood-Sweating Horses
Essay · EN
China and the Steppe: The Rise of the Xiongnu
Essay · EN
Demons, Ascetics, and the Black Pen
Essay · EN
The Rose of Heresy: The Life and Death of Sarmad Kashani
Essay · EN
Visions of Central Asia: Part I
Essay · EN
Outlines of the Heart
Essay · EN
Architecture #3: Gates, Domes, and Eternal Tears
Essay · EN
Mongols, Cheetahs, and Slaves on Horseback
Essay · EN
Verses from Cold Mountain
Essay · EN
Blind Justice
Essay · EN
Zen Stones
Essay · EN
Toxic Trees and Human Lacquerware
Essay · EN
German Trenches and Parthian Shots
Essay · EN
Architecture #1: The Science of Mud
Essay · EN
A Sufi Imam at Chabad House
Essay · EN
Architecture II: Fire, Wind, and Silence
Essay · EN
Iranians, Turanians, and the Art of the Raid
Essay · EN
When Asia Was the World
Essay · EN
Under Open Skies
Essay · EN
Trees in Trays
Essay · EN
Moonlight Over the Brothel
Essay · EN
Leaves of Grass
Essay · EN
A Very Short History of Eccentricity in China
Travel Journal · EN
The Jewels of Badakhshan
Essay · EN
Caravanserais: The Strongholds of the Soul
Research · EN
The Lotus in the Sands
Fieldwork
Study Journey · Beijing to Dunhuang · West China · Spring 2026 · Completed
Buddhist Roads — West China 2026A traveling seminar between text and place in the making of Mahayana Buddhism
Study Journey · Gansu corridor · Northwest China · Spring 2025 · Completed
Silk Road Tour 2025Lanzhou to Dunhuang along the Gansu corridor, in the company of caves, deserts and kitchens
Projects
Product · Open
Dali Infusion
A week-long retreat in Dali, Yunnan, combining mind-body practice, traditional tea culture, Bai minority heritage and sacred mountain time — designed as an inward journey in a place where ancient and contemporary life still overlap.
Other areas